Description:

Eudora Welty
1909-2001
"The Eudora Welty Portfolio: Mississippi Department of Archives and History and Diogenes Editions"
18 selenium-toned gelatin silver prints on Agfa paper negative creation dates c. 1930s - early 1940s, print date 1992, each pencil-signed lower right margin, pencil-numbered "1/60" lower left margin, "Diogenes Edition, Jackson, Mississippi" publisher blindstamp lower left margin, 17 with "Custom Framing by Art Supply Headquarters, Jackson, MS" label on backing paper, labels inscribed with exhibition order number, published by Diogenes Editions, Jackson, MS, printed by James C. Patterson (American/Mississippi, 1959-2018) under the supervision of Welty, framed alike in Bob Willis (American/Mississippi, 20th c.) handmade white oak and African wenge wood frames selected by the artist with each frame signed and dated by Willis on edge. (18 pcs.)

Exh.: Old Capitol Museum, Jackson, MS, Aug. 1992; Vicksburg Art Association, Old Firehouse Gallery, Vicksburg, MS, Sept. 15 - 27, 1992.

Note: Before publishing her first story, Eudora Welty was an accomplished photographer. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Welty gathered a body of work remarkable for her choice of subjects and ability to put them at ease. The images depict the everyday lives of Mississippians at the height of the Depression. In early 1936, Welty was featured in a one-woman show of forty-five photographs at Lugene Opticians in New York. That same summer, Welty published her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," and became a publicity agent, junior grade, for the WPA in Mississippi. Welty traveled throughout the state's backroads, small towns and rural areas to write articles about WPA projects for community weeklies, snapping pictures along the way. Although taking pictures was not part of her official WPA tasks, the experience helped chart Welty's literary life. She is quoted in 1989: "In snapping these pictures I was acting completely on my own, though I'm afraid it was on their time; they have nothing to do with the WPA. But the WPA gave me the chance to travel, to see widely and at close hand and really for the first time the nature of the place I'd been born into. And it gave me the blessing of showing me the real State of Mississippi, not the abstract state of the Depression."

In 1992, Welty combed through the negatives of the photographs she took during the Depression and hand-selected eighteen to best represent this era of her work. She collaborated with Diogenes Editions in Jackson to create a limited run of only sixty portfolios, many of which have since been separated. The rare, complete portfolio offered here is particularly notable in that it is number one of the sixty and has an impressive exhibition history, having been exhibited in the Old Capitol Museum rotunda in Jackson in 1992 and at the Vicksburg Art Association Old Firehouse Gallery later that same year. Additionally, Welty herself worked with the talented Pelahatchie-based master woodworker Bob Willis to carefully design the frames for this set from native white oak with wenge accents to reflect the era in which the photos were taken. The frames were hand-crafted and cut to resemble depression-era furniture.

Ref.: Frail, T.A. "Eudora Welty as Photographer." Smithsonian Magazine. Apr. 2009. www.smithsonianmag.com. Accessed May 15, 2025; Scanlan, Laura Wolff. "Southern Exposure." Humanities. Jan./Feb. 2011. www.neh.gov. Accessed May 15, 2025; "Welty Photographs Exhibited." Mississippi History Newsletter. 36.8 (1992).

View the Eudora Welty Virtual Gallery
Images: 10 1/8 x 17 11/16 in. (25.7 x 44.9 cm.) to 17 3/8 x 12 5/8 in. (44.1 x 32.1 cm.), Frames: 23 x 28 7/8 x 1 in. (58.4 x 73.3 x 2.5 cm.) or 28 7/8 x 23 x 1 in. (73.3 x 58.4 x 2.5 cm.)

  • Medium: selenium-toned gelatin silver prints
  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; slight marks and inconsistencies in images likely part of original negatives; one with slight waffling (chickens); frames have scattered very light marks, nicks and abrasions with light surface dust; not examined out of frames.

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June 6, 2025 11:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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